Just about any academic area of specialization can be pursued on-line. Master's degrees are offered in areas such as accounting, business administration, information technology, education and psychology. An excellent resource with which to start is the website DirectoryofSchools.com, a comprehensive list of more than 1,500 on-line degrees offered by accredited colleges and universities in the United States. In addition, the site also provides information on job placement programs available to graduates upon completion of a degree.
The timing may be more flexible, but on-line classes are similar to campus-based classes, and include lectures, required reading, assignments, quizzes, tests and most other aspects of a traditional course. An on-line class is led by a professor who teaches multiple students, with little to no face-to-face interaction, and on-line classmates can be thousands of miles away from each other. Instead, professors communicate with students via message boards, streaming audio, instant messaging and email.
The key factor in choosing an on-line grad program, however, is ensuring the program is accredited. Essentially, accreditation is an assurance that the degree is legitimate, and guarantees that whatever degree you earn is recognized by reputable educational institutions and potential employers. An easy way to learn this is by checking the U.S. Department of Education Database of Accredited Post-secondary Institutions and Programs (http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/), which confirms the accreditation of an on-line degree program.
Internet offers for bargain-priced postgraduate degrees that only take a few weeks to complete may seem like they're too good to be true--because they are. Anyone thinking about pursuing a postgraduate degree on-line needs to be aware of the growing number of disreputable "diploma mills" that offer students a cut-rate degree (not accredited, of course) that is ultimately worthless. An unaccredited degree is not taken seriously in the academic community or in a job interview, so the buyer really does need to be aware.